Herbs for Soap and Cosmetics

We at Natures Garden love the benefits of our many Herbs for Soap and Cosmetics. Each cosmetic herb has its own unique set of benefits that enhance the products they are used to create. So, adding cosmetic herbs to recipes can lead to a whole bunch of beneficial properties. Some herbs work well to naturally color your products. Some herbs are wonderful for relaxing and stress relief. Other herb additives will provide benefits to the skin, such as reducing acne or soothing irritation. Plus, there are herbs that contain a variety of healthy minerals and vitamins that are very beneficial. So, you can see why natural additives can be so great for your products and why we use them in our recipes whenever we can!

Activated Charcoal makes a wonderful addition to cosmetics and soaps, as it has a few different benefits. First, this herb is a perfect natural colorant. The color that it provides is a dark black shade that is bold and true. Since the color is natural you can use this instead of adding soap dye or another colorant. Also, this activated charcoal powder is a natural detoxifier! Not only will activated charcoal attract and adsorb grime as you use your product, but the activated charcoal will provide a deep pore clean. Plus, it is a natural odor absorber as it will cling to and remove odor as well. We have created recipes, such as the Activated Charcoal Mask Recipe and the Total Hot Man CP Soap Recipe, with activated charcoal that you can try out.

Next, we have an herb that is very well known for its healing properties. Of course, we are referring to the Aloe Vera Leaf Powder! This healing cosmetic herb is perfect for helping your skin better deal with irritation, sunburn, or inflammation. This herb is soothing and contains antioxidants, vitamin C, and other minerals which allow the skin to heal faster than it normally would. We have tried this herb out by creating the Sunburn Relief Bath Tea Recipe and it worked wonderfully! This creation was perfect for soothing a sunburn disaster! Plus, we added this herb to the Pampered Foot Scrub Recipe to help heal cracked and dry skin on feet, which was a great success. So, this herb is truly a nourishing and helpful herb.

This next natural cosmetic additive is a perfect natural colorant! The Beet Root Powder is a lovely herb that is perfect for achieving shades of pinks and light reds. This natural colorant can be used in anything from bath products like our Watermelon Emulsified Sugar Scrub Recipe and our Beet Root Facial Soap Recipe to lip products. like our Natural Beet Root Lip Gloss Recipe. This herb is really the best natural colorant for pink! Plus, it is full of nutrients, such as beta carotene, vitamin B5, vitamin B1, vitamin C, glycine, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, tryptophan, tyrosine, and zinc. Herbalists recognize beet root powder for its ability to help the liver metabolize fats, its ability to help reduce LDL in the blood, and to reduce blood pressure. So, this is pretty and good for you to use in bath and body products!

The Orange Peel Powder is a great herb for your skin care products. This powdered herb has a lovely citrus scent and is full of great vitamins for your skin! In recipes, this herb is said to have anti-microbial and anti-bacterial properties. So, this herb would make a great addition to soap recipes! For example, you could create recipes like the Fruit Frenzy Cold Process Soap Recipe or the Orange Dreamsickle Bath Bomb Recipe.

The Burdock Root Powder is an herb that is known for treating chronic skin conditions, such as eczema, psoriasis, acne, boils, styes, herpes, carbuncles, cankers, and syphilitic sores. SO, this herb would be very beneficial in creating soothing recipes to treat skin issues. For example, you could create a product like the Soothing Facial Mask Recipe to potentially reduce acne or other skin problems.

Pomegranate fruit powder is an amazing herb for the skin! This powder has a high level of antioxidants and vitamins, which leads to promoting healthy cell growth by nourishing the skin. Plus, this fruit powder herb has been known to exhibit anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties. So, this herb is perfect for skin care recipes!

While this herb is more commonly used in tea form, the Green Tea Powder herb is perfect for bath and body products. This herb has both antioxidant properties and gentle exfoliation abilities that make it nice for softening skin. Plus, this powder will provide a natural green color in cp soap batches.

The whole Calendula Flowers herb is a lovely flower that some wonderful properties for the skin. We have previously used this cosmetic herb in our Natural Facial Night Cream Recipe and our Calendula Bath Melts Recipe due to these wonderful properties. The Calendula Flowers are believed to reduce inflammation, reduce acne, and promote healthy skin and hair, which means that this herb is perfect for bath teas, soaps, lip balms, ointments, lotions, face toners, after shave formulas, scrubs, massage oils and some bath bombs. Further, this herb for bath and body products is great for helping acne issues, burns, rashes, bruised or inflamed skin. Also, this herb has been know to help to reduce varicose veins after a few weeks use.

You ready for a cosmetic herb that is both pretty and powerful? Check out our Hibiscus Flowers Powder because it is just that! First of all, this powder is a gorgeous colorant! This floral powder provides a pretty pink color that is vibrant and beautiful. Second, this herb has some pretty amazing natural properties. Hibiscus flowers are high in antioxidants and amino acids, and also contain oligopeptides that have been shown to have wrinkle-smoothing properties. We have seen with our Foaming Hibiscus Scrub Recipe that this natural cosmetic additive is perfect for wrinkle reducing! This herb has been referred to as a natural Botox and we can definitely see why! This stuff is amazing!

Carrot powder is a perfect herb for skin care recipes! This powder has been know to repair and tone the skin, reduce wrinkles and scars, and increase elasticity. These benefits come from the the abundance of vitamins and minerals that this powdered herb possesses. Plus, this herb can be used to provide a natural orange color in products. So, this would be perfect for creating scrubs or lotion products!

Also, we have a wonderful herb that is fragrant with many beneficial properties. The Lavender Flower Powder is has a lovely and strong scent that is loved by many. These flowers have been used for everything from perfumes, bathing, wound healing, to use as a natural insect repellent. Plus, this herb has some great uses in bath and body products. For example, this herb is perfect for skin care products as it has anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antibacterial, toning, and healing properties. The lavender flower powder works to treat acne, eczema, psoriasis, and oily skin. We have used this fabulous powder in our own Lavender Sage Bath Bomb Recipe to create a bath bomb that cares for the skin and smells lovely. So, this truly is a perfect herb for bath and body products!

Further, you can try out a similar herb to our lavender flowers powder, which is the Lavender Flowers Whole. This herb has all the same wonderful properties with the same beautiful aroma, but this herb maintains the pretty flowers! So, this herb would work wonderfully in a recipe with the lavender powder. So, you can have the benefits of this plant all the way through your product as well as have some pretty flowers sprinkled in. We have used these flowers in a few different recipes, such as the Lemon Lavender Bath Melts Recipe and the Lavender Cold Process Soap Recipe, to add another gorgeous element to the recipe. While these products would’ve been fairly pretty on their own, adding flowers on top made the product truly desirable.

Next, we have an herb that is great for cosmetic creations. The Oat Straw Green Powder has some lovely skin care properties that will leave your body feeling soft and rejuvenated. This cosmetic herb has long been used in skin, hair, and nail care recipes for its rejuvenating and softening qualities. So, adding this herb to your own products can only benefit your recipe. We have used this herb in our own recipes, such as the Brown Sugar Scrub Recipe and the Burgundy Rose Bath Milk Soak Recipe. This made our bath and body recipes much more softening and caring for the skin.

You can use cornsilk powder to naturally enhance your bath and body products. This herb is known to reduce inflammation and soften the skin. So, this would be great for skin care. Plus, this herb is perfect for hair care, too! Cor nsilk powder will leave hair smooth and soft!

Another wonderful herb for products is the Camu Camu Fruit Powder. This cosmetic ingredient has vitamin C, vitamin B1, B2, B3, beta-carotene, amino acids, phytochemicals, bioflavanoids, phosphorus, potassium, iron, antioxidants, and calcium, which are wonderful for the body. Plus, this cosmetic ingredient is wonderful for the skin. Due to the high levels of antioxidants in camu camu, it is used in cosmetic products to reduce free radical attacks; protecting the skin from premature aging. Plus, camu camu has been said to help whiten dark patches on the skin when used in skincare products. We have used this powdered herb in Acai Berry Smoothie Sugar Scrub Recipe and in the Blueberry Bath Bomb Recipe. These recipes are great for the skin and are very nourishing!

Another great addition to a bath and body product would be the Comfrey Root Powder. This herb has quite a few beneficial properties for the skin. Comfrey root has been known to help expedite the healing process of wounds, stop bleeding, relieve pain, and help prevent infection. Plus, this herbal powder can be added to lotions and creams to help reduce the pain associated with arthritis, sunburn, or other skin irritations. Further, creams containing comfrey root are also recommended for diabetic sores to promote healing. So, this is a great herb for healing cuts, burns, or irritations.We utilized this healing herb to create a Soothing Facial Mask Recipe. While this mask would be perfect for those with sunburns or skin irritations, it is also great as a face mask on a typical day to leave your skin feeling refreshed and happy.

Not only is this cocoa powder rich in many vitamins and minerals, but this cosmetic herb smells fantastic! Our Organic Cocoa Powder is a lovely herb that is perfect for any kind of bath and body product. First of all, cacao beans are rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C, E and pantothenic acid. Plus, they are rich in magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese and potassium. Furthermore, this herb contains caffeine, which is actually beneficial to the skin.

The Vanilla Powder is a unique ingredient for cosmetics with a scent that is absolutely mouth watering. This white colored herb won’t alter the color of your product, but it will add a strong dose of sweet vanilla goodness. The scent is so strong and smells exactly how you would expect vanilla to smell. Thus this scent is strong, true, natural, and perfect for bath and body products. We have used this fantastic bath and body additive in the Vanilla Sugar Scrub Cubes Recipe, the Natural Vanilla Body Powder Recipe, and a few other recipes. All of them had that amazing vanilla scent mixed in with their fragrance oils that added to the existing scent to create something even better!

Herbs for Soap and Cosmetics Interested in More Herbs

We hope that you enjoyed this list of some of our favorite herbs to use in our own creations. These are some of the herbs that we carry and have found to be exceptional in some way. However, there are many, many more herbs that you can use to create products that are absolutely amazing and all natural. There are some that we have not yet used in our own recipes, that could still help you create lovely and beneficial products. While we have yet to use some of these herbs ourselves, we have researched each and everyone to understand exactly how the herbs will enhance your products. So, you will be able to create a recipe that is perfectly fit to your needs. If you are interested in looking through all the herbs that we carry, then check out the Herbs and Spices Page on the Natures Garden website.

Naturally found in bitter/sour tasting fruits such as oranges, limes, lemons, grapefruits, etc; citric acid is the naturally occurring organic acid that gives such fruits mentioned above their typical sour taste. Although citric acid is found in various fruits and vegetables including raspberries, tomatoes, and some peppers, it is most potent in limes and lemons consisting of up to 8% of the dry fruit’s weight. This amount varies based on factors like climate and soil conditions.Besides fruits and vegetables, citric acid can also be produced from cane sugar, molasses, and dextrose as well.For biochemistry means, citric acid occurs in the metabolism of nearly every living creature. This is due to citric acids vital role in the Krebs cycle. Outside the metabolic role of citric acid, it is also a common go to ingredient for cosmetics, pharmaceutical, food, beverage, and cleaning industries. In fact, citric acid has been deemed safe by all major food regulatory agencies both on the national (FDA) and international end.

Sold most commonly in a powdered or crystalline form that is white, citric acid can be used as an antioxidant, preservative, pH adjuster, emulsifier, additive, cleanser, and stabilizer.

The industry yielding the most use out of citric acid is food and beverage. This is because citric acid is an additive that can be found in everything from meat to ice cream to candy and especially soda pops. Obviously, citric acid can be ingested and very few people are allergic to this ingredient. Although a typically harmless additive; this natural substance is sour and when consumed in larger quantities, may cause an upset stomach.

On the cosmetic end of things, citric acid is starting to gain popularity. More and more, people are starting to realize the benefits of using citric acid in their homemade bath and body products because of its pH adjusting abilities. Items like bath tablets and bath bombs (or bath fizzes) require citric acid as a base ingredient for their formulation. It is solely this ingredient’s interaction with baking soda that produces carbon dioxide the characteristically known and sought out fizzy action when introduced to water. Citric acid is also used in masks, peels, creams and lotions because it is an alpha hydroxy acid, giving products great exfoliate and emollient properties.

When it comes to antioxidants, citric acid is phenomenal. Not only does this natural substance help to rejuvenate and refresh the skin, but it also helps to stall the aging process in your skin. Citric acid also works as both a tonner and a cleanser. For recipes outside of bath bombs, citric acid can be used up to .5% of the total recipes weight. To add this ingredient to bath and body recipes, simply dissolve the citric acid in a liquid, and heat the mixture to 165 degrees Fahrenheit before blending it into your other ingredients.

The cleaning industry also has many uses for citric acid. It is considered an environmentally friendly cleaning agent.

This natural substance makes a great water softener, breaking down the small amounts of metal that is commonly found in water. When it comes to treating hard water, citric acid is an optimal choice for an all natural water softener.

As for a cleaning agent, citric acid is quickly gaining popularity in kitchen and bathroom cleansers. Not only does citric acid remove hard water stains from glassware, but due to the nature of this natural ingredient, it works great as a deodorizer with its instinctive clean citrus scent.

There are some cautions that should be noted with the hands on use of the concentrated (powdered form) citric acid. Always use caution when dealing with citric acid. Skin irritation may occur from interacting with large amounts of citric acid, especially if you have sensitive skin. Always wash your hands after touching citric acid. Never rub your eyes after touching citric acid. Finally, when using products with citric acid for its alpha hydroxy acid benefits; prolonged and aggressive use is not advised. Doing so will cause skin irritation. Most skin treatments that involve alpha hydroxyl acid are followed by applying a facial toner that neutralizes the skin’s ph.

To store citric acid, it should be placed in an air tight container away from moisture. The container should be kept at room temperature. This will eliminate any chance of humidity from activating its fizzing ability. If housed in this manner, citric acid can have a shelf life of up to multiple years.